2023-12-25 07:40:02
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police on Monday released 290 Baloch activists who were detained last week while trying to hold a protest in the capital.
Organizers of the protest had given a deadline to the authorities to release all those detained.
Activists had traveled 1,600 kilometers (regarding 1,000 miles) on Thursday from Turbat, a town in Balochistan province, to protest forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the southwestern part of the country, a region marked by militant activity.
The protesters were mostly women and some had brought their children, between 7 and 12 years old. Security forces used batons and water cannons to disperse and arrest them.
They wanted to draw attention to the case of Balaach Mola Bakhsh, 24, who died in November while in police custody in Balochistan. According to the authorities, he died following a militia ambush on the vehicle that was transporting him.
Police said Bakhsh was carrying explosives when he was detained. His family insists he is innocent and demands justice for him. They also said he had been detained since October, while police said they had arrested him in November.
The use of force once morest protesters sparked outrage among the Baloch population and drew nationwide condemnation from prominent human rights activists.
Protest organizers said that when dozens of vehicles carrying activists arrived on the outskirts of Islamabad before dawn, police used water cannons once morest them and began beating them to prevent them from reaching the city center.
Over the weekend, organizers and protesters held a sit-in outside the Islamabad Press Club to condemn the violence. “Four female police officers with batons beat me,” Mahrang Baloch, one of the organizers, told reporters. She and dozens of others held portraits of people detained by police and demanded their release.
Senator Mushtaq Ahmed and rights activist Farhat Ullah Baba attended the sit-in and condemned the use of force by the authorities.
“These peaceful protests are victims of state terrorism,” Ahmed said, adding that any citizen had the right to protest peacefully in Pakistan.
Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is rich in oil, gas and minerals and has seen an insurgency by Baloch nationalists for more than two decades. Initially, Baloch nationalists claimed a share of the province’s resources, but later launched an insurgency to demand independence.
According to human rights activists, those who claim a larger share of the province’s natural resources often disappear following being detained by security forces.
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